The World’s Most Valuable Companies throughout History #7 – Microsoft

In this nine-piece report, Huntedhead will look at global corporations throughout history. The ranking is based on total worth, adjusted for inflation.

Microsoft in 1999 – $851,000,000,000

Founded in 1975 by what now are two of the richest men in the world, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft has dominated the personal computing market over the past decades. Starting out with MS-DOS, the company laid the financial foundation for the later development of the immensely succesful Windows operation system. For over 20 years, Microsoft Windows has been the most popular choice for PC owners. With the accompanying Office suite, Microsoft provides a set of tools that many cannot go without in the current digital era.

The revenue comes from licensing deals with PC manufacturers, who provide a legal copy of Windows with any new machine. Throughout the years, this model caused controversy as Microsoft was accused of monopolizing on their strong position, leaving potential competitors with little room to enter the market. The supposed monopoly has been proven, according to the EU Commission, resulting in fines of several hundreds of millions dollar for non-compliance to anti-monopoly laws.

Regardless of the lawsuits, Microsoft peaked in 1999 at a net worth of a staggering $851 billion (adjusted to 2012 figures), earning the seventh position on our list. Having missed the boat on mobile devices, the net worth has declined to $273 billion today.